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Re: I told you so!

HOLY CRAP LOL at the people blaming Manning for the Interceptions that never were.

QUIT LOOKING AT QB RATING.

Manning led his team down the field in FG range 5 times. QB rating 39.6
McNair led his team down the field in FG range 2 times. QB Rating 49.9

Manning has thrown for 45-68 in the Playoffs with 5 Interceptions against Ty Law and the Best D in the league. They had 26 picks they were exceptionally excellent at picking off the ball. For the Amount of pressure he had he did great not to throw 5, which he didn't do shade as much as you want to claim it. He threw one that was a true interception and the other one was basically a QB punt(Much more effective than the real punt)

Re: I told you so!

I was about as biased as one could be watching that game, but I fail to see how anyone can say he played a "good" game.

He threw two picks, and as others have said it would have been 5 if not for Ray Lewis tipping those passes.

I have no problem admitting sometimes its better to be lucky then good, but I fail to see how anyone can say he played a good game yesterday.

As for the Ravens making him look bad, they do that to everyone, but at the end of the day all that matters is you won.

Are you serious?

How do you beat the Ravens? You control the ball. Three times the team started at their own goal line - once at the 1, once at the 5 and once at about the 16. On none of those drives did the Colts have to give the Ravens the ball at midfield.

He got the ball back with 8 minutes on the clock and a 6 point lead. When he gave the ball back to Baltimore there were 15 seconds on the clock and a 9 point lead.

He was the person calling the plays, deciding what to run against the best defense in the league.

He controlled the game better than anyone I've seen control the game against the Ravens this year. He only had one pick that mattered - the other was on 3rd and 17 and gained 50 yards.

My one major gripe is that IMO Indy should have thrown out the hurry-up at halftime. It gave Baltimore more of an advantage because Indy couldn't figure out who to block. But this was a far better performance by Manning than vs KC. That game the defense bailed the offense out. In this game the offense did what I haven't seen a team do this season - by the end of the game, wear out the Ravens defense.

There were a couple of balls I'm sure he'd like to take back but I don't know as I've watched anyone do a better job of game management than Manning did yesterday. That was a defeated, deflated defense by the 4th quarter - and that doesn't happen to that team.

Re: I told you so!

HOLY CRAP LOL at the people blaming Manning for the Interceptions that never were.

QUIT LOOKING AT QB RATING.

Manning led his team down the field in FG range 5 times. QB rating 39.6
McNair led his team down the field in FG range 2 times. QB Rating 49.9

Manning has thrown for 45-68 in the Playoffs with 5 Interceptions against Ty Law and the Best D in the league. They had 26 picks they were exceptionally excellent at picking off the ball. For the Amount of pressure he had he did great not to throw 5, which he didn't do shade as much as you want to claim it. He threw one that was a true interception and the other one was basically a QB punt(Much more effective than the real punt)

How do you beat the Ravens? You control the ball. Three times the team started at their own goal line - once at the 1, once at the 5 and once at about the 16. On none of those drives did the Colts have to give the Ravens the ball at midfield.

He got the ball back with 8 minutes on the clock and a 6 point lead. When he gave the ball back to Baltimore there were 15 seconds on the clock and a 9 point lead.

He was the person calling the plays, deciding what to run against the best defense in the league.

He controlled the game better than anyone I've seen control the game against the Ravens this year. He only had one pick that mattered - the other was on 3rd and 17 and gained 50 yards.

My one major gripe is that IMO Indy should have thrown out the hurry-up at halftime. It gave Baltimore more of an advantage because Indy couldn't figure out who to block. But this was a far better performance by Manning than vs KC. That game the defense bailed the offense out. In this game the offense did what I haven't seen a team do this season - by the end of the game, wear out the Ravens defense.

There were a couple of balls I'm sure he'd like to take back but I don't know as I've watched anyone do a better job of game management than Manning did yesterday. That was a defeated, deflated defense by the 4th quarter - and that doesn't happen to that team.

Yes, I am serious

If any of you can watch the way he played yesterday (including the overthrow if his man wide open at the 10 yard line) and tell me that was a good game, esp. by Mannings standards, then I need some of whatever you all are smoking.

Did he do enough to lead them to a victory? Yes. Is that all that matters in the playoofs? Yes.

But to say he had a good game, sorry, Im not buying it. If your defense would have been as bad as it was the last 2 weeks of the season and Manning had that type of performance people in Indy would be calling for his head [again]

EDIT: I agree with you about the hurry up. That seemed to hurt the Colts more then it helped them. And I couldnt help but laught when he tried to run three plays up the middle inside the Ravens 10 yard line, but since you guys won that is moot.

Re: I told you so!

And people wonder why several years ago Polian decided to emphasize offense because he thought Indy fans wouldn't appreciate a team built around defense ...

Not sure why, after the last 4 years, some people don't understand how the best defense will control the best offense.

Even if you didn't follow Miami for the Marino years, the way the last few Colts seasons ended should provide just a little bit of a clue.

Manning didn't play very well vs KC but he did yesterday.

DK,

I always respect your opinions, but I must say you have me perplexed on this one. First of all, let me try to find a point on which I think we agree, building a great defense is preferrable to building a great offense. In any sport defense is something that you should fundamentally be able to bring every day. A quarterback can have an off day throwing, or a basketball player can have an off day shooting, but fundamentals of defense don't require the same "Preciseness" (for lack of a better term) that offense does.

However, when an offense is in a zone, they are unstoppable regardless of the defense. A QB can throw a pass that can not be picked off if the route is timed precisely. The defense is also always on their heals trying to guess is this a run? Where? A pass? What route? Who's getting it? etc. The offense knows what is happening and they are in far more control than a defense. But alas, sometimes if your timing is off on offense, you just can't make it happen.

And when you are talking about Marino led teams, I think that is what I think about. A team that can score, but sometimes sinks. Again, offense just isn't as reliable week after week like a defense is.

But here is my gripe with Peyton. Could you once have a good post season offensive game? I remember the shootout with Miami and San Diego, so there is at least one game where Marino really let the guns blaze. Peyton is remarkable in the sense that he hasn't even accidentally had a good post season game, in regards to scoring. At least what somebody posted in a prior thread, he has only scored a max of 18 points.

Do you notice how many Superbowl winners have scored more than 18 points? Practically all of them have, against arguably some of the best defenses ever assembled. How is this possible? Obviously the defense helps score points in certain games, but clearly the offense also has to execute at a high level. And our level of play from the offense drops dramatically in the playoffs. I mean dramatically.

The Colts primarily controlled the game in the 4th Qtr. with the run, not the pass. Again, that isn't something where I laud kudos to Manning for that. And I am not just looking at this game individually but rather in Manning's entire career. Asking Manning to come up with scores each time he gets a posession is an unreasonable standard. But asking him to get a touchdown is not.

“Seventy percent of me talking on the court is personally for me to get me
motivated and going. Thirty percent is to see if I can get into the opponent’s head.”Reggie Miller

Re: I told you so!

Score of a game is a warped stat for the quality of an offense. You don't know how many of those scores were defensive recoveries. Or how many were kick off returns. That and what does a good D do, it gives you short fields which helps a weak offense look better than it actually is. Just look at the bears earlier in the season when their D was playing really really solid.

Re: I told you so!

HOLY CRAP LOL at the people blaming Manning for the Interceptions that never were.

QUIT LOOKING AT QB RATING.

Manning led his team down the field in FG range 5 times. QB rating 39.6
McNair led his team down the field in FG range 2 times. QB Rating 49.9

Manning has thrown for 45-68 in the Playoffs with 5 Interceptions against Ty Law and the Best D in the league. They had 26 picks they were exceptionally excellent at picking off the ball. For the Amount of pressure he had he did great not to throw 5, which he didn't do shade as much as you want to claim it. He threw one that was a true interception and the other one was basically a QB punt(Much more effective than the real punt)

Ray Lewis would beg to differ.

Manning played just well enough, but he was VERY lucky. Those almost-interceptions were thrown RIGHT TO Ravens defenders. They weren't tipped, the were just plain BAD passes. The only reason they weren't actual interceptions is because of butter-fingers Lewis knocking over his own teammates trying to pull them in. If Lewis comes up with either of those other interceptions, we probably lose the game.

Point is, Manning had better be back on top of his offensive game in the next round, because both SD and NE have much better offenses than Baltimore. I don't expect the defense to be able to hold them in check like they have the Ravens and KC, so Peyton is going to have to put some points on the board.

Skip Bayless:

"Derek Fisher will prove to be a much better NBA head coach than Steve Kerr."

"The Houston Texans will forever regret it if they do not take Johnny Manziel with the No. 1 overall pick. He will haunt them."

Re: I told you so!

Well something I would put in manning's defense is as far as time of posession goes we had a greater time of posession than the team with the best defense in the league and #1 in time of posession. I know a lot of that has to do with how great defense is, but it also has to do with our offense being able to make something happen and string a couple of drives together. We did just that in the last quarter we got the ball with seven plus minutes and just shoved the ball right down their throats. Alot of that was to our running back tandem's credit but also that one pass to Dallas Clark couldn't have been thrown any better and that was the play that I think iced the game for us. Also as far as Manning in the playoffs goes and not being able to score, didn't we have a shootout with the Chiefs AT arrowhead stadium and we won the game? I don't remember how many points were scored in that game off the top of my head but I'm thinkin it was over 18.

Found the score it was 38 - 31 Colts Peyton Manning threw for 304 yards with three touchdowns and posted a 138.8 passer rating.

Re: I told you so!

Besides against KC and Denver I don't think you can say he had stellar games. Last year he didn't do too bad either considering the pressure he was under and the fact he was playing 14 points down pretty much the whole game.

Thats 3 Stellar games, an above average game for sure, and what I would argue were 2 average games all things considered this year. So in the last 4 years even if you think these two games were horrible. He has put up 4 decent/stellar games and 4 bad/below average games(3 of which were against Ty Law his arch nemesis or the #1 D in the league)

Re: I told you so!

Well something I would put in manning's defense is as far as time of posession goes we had a greater time of posession than the team with the best defense in the league and #1 in time of posession. I know a lot of that has to do with how great defense is, but it also has to do with our offense being able to make something happen and string a couple of drives together. We did just that in the last quarter we got the ball with seven plus minutes and just shoved the ball right down their throats. Alot of that was to our running back tandem's credit but also that one pass to Dallas Clark couldn't have been thrown any better and that was the play that I think iced the game for us. Also as far as Manning in the playoffs goes and not being able to score, didn't we have a shootout with the Chiefs AT arrowhead stadium and we won the game? I don't remember how many points were scored in that game off the top of my head but I'm thinkin it was over 18.

Found the score it was 38 - 31 Colts Peyton Manning threw for 304 yards with three touchdowns and posted a 138.8 passer rating.

Good call on the stats. I was in another thread and the person looking up games must have looked up the games that knocked us out instead of all games. My bad on that, b/c I did not personally look up the stats.

But overall those good games are unfortunately aberrations.

“Seventy percent of me talking on the court is personally for me to get me
motivated and going. Thirty percent is to see if I can get into the opponent’s head.”Reggie Miller

Re: I told you so!

Score of a game is a warped stat for the quality of an offense. You don't know how many of those scores were defensive recoveries. Or how many were kick off returns. That and what does a good D do, it gives you short fields which helps a weak offense look better than it actually is. Just look at the bears earlier in the season when their D was playing really really solid.

I think it is suffice to say that defense plays a role in scores, but in general I have vivid memories of offenses answering the bell. Terry Bradshaw launching to Stallworth and Swan against my beloved Cowboys, Joe Montanna marching down the field for a TD to beat the Bengals, or Kenny King on a hit from Dave Plunkett for a big score. How about the Aikman Cowboys just running over their opposition? The amount of TD's scored by kick or punt return has to be a pretty rare event.

And remember, the Colts have been given some pretty favorable starting field position in general the last couple of games, or so it seems to me. The last drive they didn't, but it was b/c it was an interception to thwart a touchdown.

“Seventy percent of me talking on the court is personally for me to get me
motivated and going. Thirty percent is to see if I can get into the opponent’s head.”Reggie Miller

Re: I told you so!

DKHowever, when an offense is in a zone, they are unstoppable regardless of the defense. A QB can throw a pass that can not be picked off if the route is timed precisely. The defense is also always on their heals trying to guess is this a run? Where? A pass? What route? Who's getting it? etc. The offense knows what is happening and they are in far more control than a defense. But alas, sometimes if your timing is off on offense, you just can't make it happen.

I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on this one.

Great defenses don't allow offenses to get "in a zone." That's why they're great defenses.

And there haven't been that many great defenses that I can remember. The 70's Steelers did. Some of the 90's Steelers came close. A couple of Carolina teams recently were close (but their offense sucked).

There haven't been any defenses in the NFL I'd call great over the past 5 years. The Steelers and Pats have been very good but not great. They had something you could exploit.

With the Ravens you have a front line that had either the most or 2nd most sacks in the league this year. The linebackers are the best in the league IMO - NE and SD might have an argument. The weakest part of the defense is the secondary - and they led the league in picks.

Sometimes the defense doesn't let you do what you want to. With Baltimore you can throw short - and the LB's will be on them instantly. You can try to throw long - except you might get sacked and if you get pressured the team tops in the league in interceptions is there. You can try to run - but the D-line is one of the better ones in the league and you have those LB's again.

Indy scored 5 times against that defense - 2-3 times more than I expected. But it's the same old story. In this age of the salary cap you can't pay enough to have a great offense and defense like teams could 20 years ago. If you're very good on one side of the ball and average on the other you should be able to win (see Chicago this year or Pittsburgh last year - or even Indy last year). Better yet is to be above average on both like NE has been and SD is this year.

Manning's worst throw yesterday by far was the miss to Morehead. The first int he looked off the DB who didn't get "looked" on a deep ball that probably shouldn't have been thrown but against 90% of the teams in the league the play works. And the long INT was what amounts to a Hail Mary. I'd also suggest people look at the "almost's". On one, Manning threw to Marvin who quit on his crossing pattern (my comment at the time was I wouldn't blame Peyton if he didn't throw him another ball). On another Clark turned up the field right as he threw instead of across. There was one that I don't know what he was doing.

But as for running the game, managing things in a tough, tight, grinding game, calling plays to be able to keep moving the chains, etc., I'm not sure how anyone can say Manning had a bad game. It wasn't like last week vs KC or last year vs Pittsburgh - then he had bad games. But not yesterday, not against that team.

Manning Marched us down the field four times to get FG's. Distances of 45, 47, 65, 67. 9 times he passed to keep the drives going converting for 1st down, especially when it mattered most at the end of the game. There is more to the game than Stats. You think after how hard I am on JO you think I am going to give Manning a break when he doesn't deserve it.

Also for most of the game we were not getting much run support, they pretty much knew he was going to have to pass it. That changes the complexion of the game, that is why its important to watch it. Until that very last drive where he passed like once, they were like 22 rushes for 60 yards. That consistently put him in 3rd and long.

Manning Marched us down the field four times to get FG's. Distances of 45, 47, 65, 67. 9 times he passed to keep the drives going converting for 1st down, especially when it mattered most at the end of the game. There is more to the game than Stats. You think after how hard I am on JO you think I am going to give Manning a break when he doesn't deserve it.

Also for most of the game we were not getting much run support, they pretty much knew he was going to have to pass it. That changes the complexion of the game, that is why its important to watch it. Until that very last drive where he passed like once, they were like 22 rushes for 60 yards. That consistently put him in 3rd and long.

Okay, you don't want me to use stats... which you have used above for your conclusions, and you don't want me to use opinions. If we take away statistics and opinions, we pretty much eliminate any discussion on this and all sports threads. But apparently the "Ty Law" factor passes the litmus test of what you consider sound logic. Which seems a little to me. I mean you call stats stupid and then you give the details of the yards of each drive. Are we using them or not?

But for the record, I did watch the game. I have watched every play of the playoffs Peyton Manning has been in. I've played the game of football, certainly not at a professional level, but I understand the game. I actually understand it far more than I do basketball. I've been watching football for over 30 years at a professional level and I've seen quite a bit during those years.

I originally jumped on this thread to support Shade b/c I saw the exact same thing he did. As a matter of fact, among the many people I've talked to over the past two weeks, you and DK are the only folks saying Peyton has performed solid. Now for a Colts fan to say that, including the Homer factor, I can believe anything. When you get to some folks who have a favorite player or team, logic goes out the window. It is kind of like that die hard Democrat or Republican who thinks there respective party can do no wrong.

But when DK, a non-partisan fan, comes in and says Peyton played a good game, it makes my He has explained himself well, but as he has noted we will have to agree to disagree. You explain away statistics when they don't support your claim, for example the incredibly poor interception to touchdown Ratio Peyton is working on. And when somebody uses some non-statistical data, for example the observation that Peyton was continually throwing in double and triple coverage and right in the hands of defenders several times, you say "ah no big deal. Can't count the almosts."

The announcers pointed out, which I noticed, that the stretch play wasn't working. So as the architect of the offense, why wasn't Peyton pushing it up the gut more? Rarely does a run offense pay big dividends until the second half b/c you have to wear your opponent down. And we milked a large part of the 4th quarter b/c of solid running. I can't tell you what quarter they were in, but Shade has listed several plays where Peyton threw into insane coverages and almost got picked. DK mentions the poor throw to Moorehead. Why did he stop exploiting the Reggie Wayne matchup and start throwing to Marvin? I think you will find a much shorter list of things he did well than he did poorly.

I have high expectations of Peyton b/c he is that good in my opinion. And there are guys like Joe Montanna that found a way to elevate their play in the post season. I don't see how anybody can argue that Peyton has demonstrated that ability. You can use all your stats and observations in the world, and you won't come up with a compelling argument.

I am dumbfounded and I mean dumbfounded that people are defending his performance. Peyton has laid the proverbial egg in the playoffs this year. Has the offense done well at times? Absolutely, but I credit some pretty great interior blocking and Addai and Rhodes stepping up when they needed to. I'll give ya' the Peyton pass to Dallas Clark, but man... that is one play.

I can't even come to grips with how this is debatable, let alone understand the opinion, but hey anyway and Go Colts!!!

“Seventy percent of me talking on the court is personally for me to get me
motivated and going. Thirty percent is to see if I can get into the opponent’s head.”Reggie Miller

Re: I told you so!

I originally jumped on this thread to support Shade b/c I saw the exact same thing he did. As a matter of fact, among the many people I've talked to over the past two weeks, you and DK are the only folks saying Peyton has performed solid.

Re: I told you so!

See the thing is the same people ripping Manning are going to praise Brady for being cool under pressure against a lesser defense.

Brady has a reputation for being cool in the playoffs and Peyton does not. Peytons post season ability has been ridiculed at a college and Pro level. I do think Brady has had better teams than Peyton, but you have to respect the guy as a competitor and as a pressure player.

“Seventy percent of me talking on the court is personally for me to get me
motivated and going. Thirty percent is to see if I can get into the opponent’s head.”Reggie Miller

Re: I told you so!

Anyway, out of both weeks I've not heard much on the shiny happy side.

Really? Here's some:

1. The Colts won
2. Manning completely altered the team's approach to the game adopting a ball-control type offense - something many people, myself included, thought the Colts could never be successful with against the Ravens
3. During the season Baltimore was the number 1 team in the league in Time of Possession. Indy was 22nd. Indy finished the game ahead in time of possession. Obviously, the defense shares in this but not throwing the ball 3 straight times on a possession certainly helped.
4. Four times Indy started drives deep in their own territory against the best defense in the league. Indy never failed to get the ball out to where Baltimore started the ensuing drive at better than their own 32 (though once this was from a long pick on 3rd and 17)
5. The team stuck with the run, even though it wasn't working very well - 2.9 YPC - but by sticking to the run they wore out the Ravens, which I never thought they'd be able to do, and were able to basically run out the clock the last 8 minutes of the game.
6. The team scored 5 times vs the Ravens. Been nice if one had been a TD (and the Morehead pass was the biggest single bad play Manning made IMO) but teams don't generally drive up and down the field vs the Ravens, even if it's between your own goal line and the 20 (I was gonna say between the 20's but most drives started deeper than that)
7. IMO, once you went up 9-3 after the long Vinateri FG, the Colts were in total control of the game
8. Vs the team best at not allowing 3rd down conversions at under 29% (2nd place isn't very close) the Colts converted over 42%

If you assume that Peyton does most of the play calling at the line - which is what's always been reported - then he gets quite a bit of (not all) the credit for all of the above.

9. By now I'd hope every Colts fan knew that Peyton Manning wouldn't be able to carry you to the SB by himself. In this game he didn't have to.
10. He was only sacked once by a team that had 60 during the season.
11. Did I mention the Colts won?

Manning didn't have his best passing game but IMO he managed the game better than I've ever seen him do against a tough defense. Unless you're caught up in the fact that he didn't throw a bunch of TD passes. Well, people don't throw many TD passes against that team.

Can't give you much sunshine vs the Chiefs. He sucked then. But that was a different game against a completly different type of team. That game he looked flustered and hesitant. Yesterday he looked in control.

Re: I told you so!

Brady has a reputation for being cool in the playoffs and Peyton does not. Peytons post season ability has been ridiculed at a college and Pro level. I do think Brady has had better teams than Peyton, but you have to respect the guy as a competitor and as a pressure player.

Whats that have to do with the fact he sucked today against a weaker D than we played against.

Either Both Sucked, or they both controlled the ball and did what was needed to win.